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You missed the majority of his.

J6 was a violent riot. Tucker's reporting says that as well. However Congress, the president, the vice president, and multiple news networks have been telling us it was an armed insurrection & worse than 9/11 or Pearl Harbor. On a scale relative to those events, it's accurate to say "J6 wasn't that bad." It's also lazy to rely on the "both sides bad" comeback. I recall during the height of ISIS our MSM networks would cautiously report on a dozen children roasted alive by the Caliphate (or whatever latest barbarity) while reminding us that Christian extremists also exist and are bad. My reply then & now is "you're not wrong but GMAFB." there can be no unity or reconciliation in our country without accountability for shitty behavior on any side. On that I hope we agree and if focused on that these conversations can be more unifying and productive. If a J6 or BLM rioter is caught, throw them in jail. If Trump breaks the law, investigate & prosecute. If Biden has been taking Chinese bribe money through his crackhead son, investigate & prosecute. Unfortunately a politicized and unethical DOJ/FBI is only weighing in against one side on those above examples and that is clearly apparent now. I want one country under God with liberty and justice for all.

I definitely can. Can you you point to EVEN ONE incident where a white pilot who should have been fired was retained because he claimed "you're firing me because of my race or gender"? Melatonin content and wedding tackle should have absolutely no bearing in the hiring process because gender and race have no discernable impact on the capabilities of a pilot. The moment they are introduced as any form of discriminator, the quality of the force goes down, because they stop hiring for quality and start hiring for diversity. That's how DEI bullshit is diluting the gene pool. That's basic logic. Can you not see that? Following your rules, the NFL and NBA would be better if they hired more white guys and asian girls, and the oil fields would be more productive if they had a quota of weak armed trans-men work the rigs. The logic of DEI is completely false. Removing some barriers to entry makes sense, enforces quotas does not. Also basic logic: it's impossible to prove a negative. Asking someone to do so is violently ignorant. If you make your world view decisions primarily based on "statistics", you're putting yourself at the whim of any tool who knows how to twist numbers to his view. Logic and reason. Use logic and reason. When you stop hiring based on ability to do the job, you get a lower quality product. When you DO hire based on ability, you'll get all the diversity you need as a side-effect. You want a stat? Ok. An airplane was crashed (and yes, one is too many) by a man who should have been fired based on his performance but was retained predominantly because of his race. Show me a stat that proves diversity has IMPROVED the safety of the airlines. (that's a positive by the way...those can be proven)

Main benefit is flying the U-2. Can we set a Baseops standard or something when the airline types feel the need to go into the airline pitch about how much money it is, QOL, etc you can just brief that as “standard”? We got it and are all jealous.

its simple, the lowering of hiring standards (hours requirements/college degree/etc), massive hiring wave + pressure to expand airline networks devastated by covid has created a lot of strain on the system. add in the early retirements of ATC and senior pilots during COVID...this has created a system where there are thousands of new, inexperienced crew members (no fault of their own we all start somewhere), working in a system where safeguards and margins are thinner than they were in the past. dispatch, below wing, ATC, pilots, ramp control etc....lots of new people in new jobs with rapid expansion. the stress is showing. i double+triple check every runway i cross these days and don't take anything for granted how many new ATP pilots entered the system since 2021? how many pilots have airlines hired? break break i know i'll get shit for this but it doesn't help when every major airline is constantly sending out emails and pats on the back for how many new hires are DEI or women or gay. what does that contribute to the problem? unknown. but it doesn't make it better the trope "diversity makes us stronger" is a farce. it doesn't. skilled pilots/crew members REGARDLESS OF THEIR COLOR, SEX, RELIGION makes us stronger and better. no one is prevented from becoming a pilot because of their background. YES there are areas of society where the barriers to entry were/are higher, but honestly that is life! go out, work hard, train hard, and get it. our society has to move away from DEI metrics. and scrubbing training folders/failures to keep up with the woke narrative is not making the airline industry safer.

I know guys who flew airlines or cargo and hated it, even though they made a shit ton of money. They are now flying in other careers and are happier than ever. To each their own.

I agree overall with @BashiChuni. But, none of that is proven to be a RC (that I’ve read about) in most of the recent near mishap/runway incursions. It very well may be, but we shouldn’t overlook other possible CFs/RCs. Case in point, the AA heavy crossing without clearance - pretty sure the CA wasn’t inexperienced or a DEI hire.

The airlines are hiring enough questionable white males without DEI right now as it is. Least professional pilot I’ve ever encountered, who was already kindly asked to leave a ULCC? You guessed it, in a legacy new hire class recently.

UPS Pilots:

Correct. And the right has no credibility when they try to launder a 5 minute video into some kind of game changer bombshell that *surprise!!* Jan 6th wasn't that bad. If I can get nothing else through to you guys please hear this: blind subscribers to either political party are intellectual trash who will use any shred of anything that appears to lean their way to validate their pre-existing views. This goes for the entire MSM and the vast majority of right wing online news culture. I think the first step to recovery is acknowledging that both sides have gone incredibly wrong in very different but very severe ways, and after you admit that it's easy to stop playing the tit-for-tat tribal political game.

Lol you guys threw an almighty sh!t fit when the left called the George Floyd riots "mostly peaceful" and then you turn around and act like the thing we saw happen at the capitol was no big deal.

I don’t think that at all. But I do think the airlines is a very good post-mil flying career that is widely misunderstood by many who also are the ones giving “career advice” to their subordinates and peers. That’s the main reason for openly discussing it in these boards, in hopes of increasing the amount of valid data available for people to make informed decisions.

For the most part agree with all above. I passed off the deep strike part as being more about unsupported Army helo aviation than anything joint or AF centric. In that the authors may have a point worth discussing. The portion on JFE is certainly interesting and something worth discussing. Vertical envelopment and amphibious assaults are going to be increasingly difficult to accomplish with widely proliferated, cheap and mobile ADA, anti-ship missiles, and loitering, kamikaze UAS. Not to mention any adversary with heavy artillery. I’ve worked with a pretty wide cross section of Army guys over the years, some fall into the above category you describe, others realize that we (The US military) isn’t getting anything done without the other services. The two authors of the above article probably fall into the former category if I was to guess, but they still make some valid points.

So here’s where we diverge from the “why are these issues happening” discussion and get into the whole philosophy of diversity thing. I didn’t really want to engage earlier but I think this is important. Do you think there was ever a “meritocracy hiring system”? I don’t. There was a good ol’ boy network, but never a meritocracy. One of the benefits of of diversity is tight there in the description: you diversify your hiring pool. You end up with a larger pool of qualified candidates than you would’ve had before. Does it work perfectly? Of course not. But neither did the old system. You don’t think Billy Bob ever got put in the front seat of an F-4 or 727 because his brother-in-law knew the chief pilot & not because he was the best guy for the job? It’s all well and good to want to hire the best candidate but often times that’s an unrealistic pipe dream. Always has been. Always will be. For the folks arguing that we are less safe today because “diversity”, I challenge you to prove it. Don’t give me some one off, anecdotal example. Show me statistics that say commercial aviation is getting progressively less safe. Because all of the evidence that I’ve seen shows that we are far safer now than we were when Jimbo the Chief Pilot had the sole and final say on who got hired.

With the current banking crisis heating up there's the potential things could get really stupid over the next couple days/weeks. If folks have cash stashed in banks, brokerage firms, U.S. Treasuries/Bonds (Treasury Bills, Treasury Notes, Treasury Bonds, or Treasury Inflation - Protection Securities - TIPS), Other Bonds (Municipal, Corporate, etc) - now would be a good time to double check what type/amount $$$ of insurance coverage you have. Vanguard doesn't have any FDIC protection/coverage but they do have 'Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC)' insurance. Me and my wife also have cash being held in separate Vanguard ROTH IRA accounts. These two ROTH IRA accounts are currently in the Vanguard Federal Money Market Holding Fund (VMFXX) and each account has 500K SIPC insurance protection (Total coverage = 1 million). I also have brokered CDs with Vanguard but the commercial bank they cut the deal with provides the FDIC 250K insurance coverage for the CDs. Here's some info on Vanguard SIPC and secondary insurance: ' under SIPC rules, IRAs have their own insurance that is separate from taxable accounts. And Roth IRAs are separate from Traditional IRAs. If you have 2 IRAs at Vanguard (one Roth and one Traditional) and 2 taxable individual accounts, you would have a total of $1.5 million of insurance. The retirement accounts would have a total of $1 million of protection ($500,000 for the Roth, and another $500,000 for the Traditional), and the taxable accounts would have another $500,000 (but not $500,000 for each). But if one of the taxable accounts is a joint account, it would have its own $500,000 limit, which would produce $1 million in total insurance for the taxable accounts.' Vanguard does have an auxiliary insurance policy through Lloyd’s of London and London Company Insurers. It adds a second layer of protection to a brokerage account if, and only if, SIPC protection is exhausted. The secondary insurance policy is good for up to $49.5 million per account. There is an aggregate maximum of $250 million. That means the insurance policy will shell out a quarter of a billion dollars at most across all accounts that have maxed out SIPC coverage. Is Vanguard SIPC and FDIC Insured? (ira-reviews.com)

Frankly: No I was actively blinded by either arrogant or ignorant air force leadership while I was on active duty about how 'not so awesome' airline life is. I will actively share all the benefits and drawbacks as honestly as I ever can, especially with those still in active service to ensure they can make a decision with full knowledge, as I was not able to for so long. Hence me asking: what are the additional benefits of this U-2 job. Flying the U-2 is great, if you're single, still 25, have no kids to plan for, or don't mind leaving your family in a relatively unappetizing location to live while you continue to hang onto the dream of being the next Chuck Yeager. Make no mistake: We need those men. Those men are the reason the US keeps such an amazing technological edge. But those men also also deserve to understand the opportunity costs they are incurring. Retirement comes for us all. The QOL and retirement benefits of the 121 world are amazing. Is test pilot world really worth it to be 55, thrice divorced, no longer able to hold an FAA medical because of a body that's been broken by hard service, and hardly any pension or retirement to speak of? I'm curious what the contractor world of text pilots offers in return for a life spent so close to the high desert airfields and not much else.

My fear is that the Roth promise will not be honored. Millionaires will not find much sympathy when we finally have to address the national debt.

TLDR version: Biden’s fault.

In the long run math for high-income dudes, Roth makes more sense if your goal is to minimize total taxes paid over your lifetime. Traditional is the way to go for minimizing taxes paid right now. Specific to high-earning airline pilots: expect that your income in retirement will be quite high owing to the massive amount of money being put into retirement accounts right now. Most airline bubbas should have no problem hitting the IRS retirement limits (66,500 right now?) every year after year 2 or 3, at least those in the heavy hitting airlines. ACMIs/regionals not so much. Over the course of 20 years, that's 2-3M in that account alone. I personally want the growth on that to never be touched. The other major variable is recognizing that taxes will likely go up as we're at a traditional low right now in view of our country's tax history. Especially if you consider that the current administration has dug us a massive hole, and our government historically tries and tax it's way out of those...even though financial facts and precedent have proven that such a course of action never works...luckily for politicians, facts and precedents bear little weight on their decision making and policy production. As for leaving a big chunk for your kiddos, I believe there was legislation recently passed that makes Roth accounts not live forever, but that they must be paid out within 10 years of your death, or something like that. Worth looking into if that was your plan. In any case, a well-structured trust should be in store for each high-income earner regardless.

No retirement or pension, so I try to max out both (employer-sponsored (with some matching) traditional 401K and private Roth IRA through Vanguard). I realize not everyone can do that (we're DINKs), so it's strictly retirement planning with no inheritance considerations. I plan to draw both when the time comes assuming I make it to that age, which should be a lower tax bracket than current. Let's hope social security is still a thing then too.

There’s a lot of optimism about demographics Re: blunting China’s rise. The blind spot there, however, is that their economy is not the same economy of the 90s or 2000s. Education and an emerging (established?) service and tech economy means that fewer people can make more money with less labor. Hope of a natural decline is not a valid strategy; every time we fail to engage (as in Iran-Saudi or participation in international institutions), we should expect China to score easy points. Those international institutions are a BFD… let’s not forget that we set most of them up after winning WWII so we could pull the strings of global order.

I'm too important to block. Sorry.

Not exactly F1 but still fun to make fun of Ferrari.

The big takeaways are 1. Officer Sicknick did not die on Jan 6th but the media, FJB, the AG, and democrats knew it and lied. Worse, they continue to lie in some cases. 2. The DOJ intentionally failed to disclose evidence as required by constitutional law. They lied to the court. 3. Democrats trashed a couple centuries of precedence by not allowing the minority party to select their committee members, did not allow counter arguments or evidence, and staged a show trial that would have made Stalin proud. In other words, there is no lie too big even if it means the destruction of the truth, legal protections, and the legislative process in order to further the advancement of power. Scary shit right there.

There's thousands of hours of violent riot footage. The fact that Tucker can piece together 5 minutes of people milling around proves nothing.. other than the fact he's a political hack eager jump on the tiniest shred of video that confirms his biases. Get it together and do some critical thinking, dudes. This wasn't a near-insurrection but it sure f-ing wasn't a docile guided tour either. Some of the crap you guys post here looks like it came straight out a boomer spam email forwarding chain.

Lessons From Ukraine Many Don’t Want to Hear | RealClearDefense Army centric and doesn't emphasize enough the major impact of UAS and revival of long range massed fires but worth a read/has some good points.